


Pretty boy

by shipintheisland



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Alternative London city, Gang AU, M/M, Maxiel is love Maxiel is life, Vigilante AU, ooooh yeah im going down that road and i love it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:33:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24394336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shipintheisland/pseuds/shipintheisland
Summary: During the night, the F1 vigilante organization protects London from the criminals that invaded the streets. But behind the mask of the funny and popular Honey Badger, Daniel only has eyes for one: the grey-eyed boy he met during a patrol.
Relationships: Daniel Ricciardo/Max Verstappen
Comments: 9
Kudos: 45





	Pretty boy

**Author's Note:**

> I AM STARTING MY GANG VS VIGILANTE AU AAAAAAAAAH  
> You guys CAN'T IMAGINE how long I've been thinking about this AU  
> It's been MONTHS OKAY  
> AND THIS IS NOT EVEN THE MAIN STORY  
> But my tumblr wife had enough of waiting, I had to deliver something, so here you got the Maxiel part of the AU  
> And because I have no self control, what was supposed to be an OS became too long, and I don't know where this is going but now it has CHAPTERS (probably like two or three, not more)  
> So let's call that an introduction to the AU, because oh guys this is only the beginning eheheh  
> ANYWAY, I'll stop writing in full capitals, enjoy <3

Daniel is laying on his couch, legs swinging on the armrest, the TV blasting a random action movie loudly and a rest of pizza dries on the table. He is half asleep, too lazy to get up and switch on the light, too bored to simply shut down the TV, only source of luminosity in the living room. But seeing how it got dark outside, he is sure it won’t be long until he needs to get up anyway.

Indeed, only a few minutes later, an alarm rings from Daniel’s second phone and he leaves his couch and his old TV in a jump to go change in his bedroom. He discards his bright yellow hoodie and his pants, walking almost naked around the room to look for the bag hidden in a drawer of his closet. He hums a catchy song to himself in order to waken his still sleepy mind and dances a little, moving his hips to his own rhythm as he opens the bag and empties its content on his bed and throws it somewhere in a corner. He grabs the black pants on his bed when a buzz from his phone interrupts him and he waddles to grab it in the pocket of his jeans on the floor.

_Bear_

_I’m at your place, hurry up, it’s cold_

Dan sends him a quick _okidoki_ before putting on his pants and the fitting long-sleeved black thick shirt before sitting down to put on the black boots, still moving his head along with his imaginary music. Once he is done, he attaches the utility belt around his waist, grabs the last piece of his attire and skips to the mirror. He pushes a few locks out of his eyes, thinking he should have his hair cut soon – or more like he should cut his hair himself soon, the hairdresser here is him after all. With one swift movement that only habit can make easy, he spreads a tiny line of glue over his black and white mask and, approaching the mirror a little more, places it carefully on his face, checking that the tissue stays stuck on his features. Taking a step back, Dan takes a few seconds to admire himself. He looks great, all in dark clothes, like a shadow ready to lurk around the city, the only notable lighted touch being the white of his mask that covers his eyes while letting him see through in the night, and the shiny metal of the retractable bow staff on his right hip.

“Yes, baby!” He says as he snaps his fingers in the air before grabbing his secret phone and opening the hidden trap of the building’s attic.

A minute later, he gets to the rooftop unnoticed and starts stretching his arms and legs.

“What took you so long?” A voice erupts from behind him and Dan turns around with his arms on top of his head to face his teammate.

“I’m not late, you’re just early as always.” A large smile spreads on his face and Lewis glares at him impatiently, knowing fully well Dan is right: he _is_ early. “So, what’s the plan tonight?”

“Fox told us to keep an eye on the Waterloo station area, Team B spotted a few members of the Scuttlers a little too close to the bank. Besides that, nothing planned in particular.”

“Nice-o! We might be able to get some sleep before the sun rises again then!”

“Don’t get your hopes up, HB, we never know what can happen at night in London.”

* * *

London is a beautiful city, colourful, animated, there is always something to do and it’s so different from the farm and the fields Daniel has always been used to in his life. That is what he has thought from the second he came for a holiday back when he was in a hairdresser school not far from Perth in Australia. What should have been a week of parties and fun with his friends quickly became his life project and, the second he got his diploma in his pocket, he was in a plane back to Europe, dreams of an active life and a successful salon stuck in his head. He rented a local, went through weeks of construction work and finally opened ‘Dan’s Austral’Hair’ right before the back-to-school period – and we say thank you Dad and Mom for the money!

If the immediate success has been the best surprise, to the point that he had to hire another hairdresser to help him (and it’s okay, really, Michael is _hilarious_ ), the first night robbery a month after the grand opening was quite a big disillusion. That was how, at 22, Dan discovered the dark side of the British capital.

When tourists and workers were walking down the roads during the day, and party goers enjoyed the open bars and discotheques in the centre of the city in the evening, the rest of the night was always taken by the growing numbers of badly intentioned people, or worse, the gangs lurking in the corners and taking every in their way, be it a bank or a simple souvenir shop. Dan’s hair salon was no exception and he quickly found out that the police would be no help in his problem: from the moment they discovered the robbers were part of a growing gang, they just, retracted from the case, and Daniel was left in front of his devastated shop on his own.

Until another night, when the alarm of the shop ringed again and he ran toward the place in the middle of the night only to end up face to face with two guys dressed in black and wearing… masks?

_Don’t worry, we’re from the Force 1 organization, we don’t want to hurt you, we’re just doing the job that the police left behind._

Daniel had read about them in the newspapers a few times, discreet volunteers organized as a vigilante group to protect the London innocent inhabitants from the burglars and other criminals, but never to this day had he really believed in these stories. Mouth agape, he had simply let the two masked men take up some evidences from yet another robbery before climbing by the windows, landing on the roof of the building and jumping away from the scene.

From then on, Dan was obsessed with those mysterious guys. Brave, discreet and efficient people working all night to make London a better place. Has he been less adventurous, he would have left it where it was and continued with his new life in England. Only, Daniel was, is, and will always be a noisy fucker, so when his curiosity about this vigilante organization got the best of him, he decided to be part of the group. And after weeks of observing, of training every evening – no, we don’t talk about the number of pizzas he ate in that period – and of stalking the duo of vigilantes he often spotted close to his living place every three nights, Dan finally got their attention, earned their trust, and gained a permanent place in the F1 organization.

Now, four years later, he is a reliable member of the group, a skilful criminal catcher, quick and fearless, the unstoppable Honey Badg-

“Hey!” Lewis calls him loudly from his left, and Dan pops out of his daydream – nightdream? Anyway – to offer him an apologetic smile.

“Yeah?” He asks calmly, readjusting his hold on the young girl laid on her front on the floor. “Stop moving.” He hisses at her, and as an answer, she tries to spit in his face. Lewis frowns in disgust as he folds his phone in his pocket.

“A police car is coming to pick that one,” he points at their third catch of the night, “then we go check one last time around the station.”

Daniel sighs, they have been pacing around London all night, and the regular checks next to the London Eye were starting to grow on his tired nerves. They haven’t spotted any trace of abnormal activities there of all night, why bother going back _again_?

“I know,” Lewis stops him before he protests, “but with that Fox will be happy and we can go to bed afterwards.”

‘Aiiiiight!” Dan sighs again.

The young thief beneath him continues to fidget, so he simply sits on her back, keeping his hands up in case she tries to kick him, again. They wait in a relative calm, Lewis counting the money she robbed from the jewellery while Dan tries to remember the face of her two accomplices.

The police drive by a few minutes later and put a pair of handcuffs around her wrists.

“Th-thank you” One of the policemen tells them in a shaky breath, and he doesn’t even have the decency to hide his fear of standing in the middle of a dangerous area. _As if it is not supposed to be his job in the first place._ Lewis hides his annoyance behind a hypocritical smile that makes the police car leave faster, and the two vigilantes start walking toward the Waterloo area.

“I hope no one else will decide to break something tonight,” Daniel complains as he shakes his shoulders in a vain attempt to keep the fatigue away, “I’m rough!”

As an answer, Lewis suddenly throws his arm in front of his teammate, stopping him in his track.

“Wha-“

“Ssshhhh!” Lewis hurries, pushing him behind against the large door of a building. Silently, left arm still pressed against Daniel’s chest, he lifts his other hand to point at a moving silhouette on the crossroad a few dozen meters away from them.

Daniel squints his eyes to try and get a good view of the person walking away from them on the sidewalk, without moving too much from his not-so-well-hidden spot.

It’s a young man, not more than 20, tall, bulky, with a cap on his head. Hands in his jeans’ pockets, he walks unhurriedly toward the river, not seeming to realize the potential danger it could be for a young guy alone in this area.

Dan elbows Lewis to catch his attention, and points his finger up, to which the other nods and in one swift movement, they turn around, jump and grabs the bars of the window of the first floor, climbing to the roof in only a few seconds. From there, they can stay unnoticed, and they walk to the other corner to check the position of the young lonely man. It is quite a usual mission, really, following the rare adventurous innocent inhabitants to make sure they get home safe without making any bad encounter – they got enough feedbacks from the police of aggressions, thieves or worse…

But as soon as they spot him below, they freeze: the boy stopped walking and his eyes are directed toward them. Maybe they weren’t that discreet after all.

As Lewis waves toward the boy to assure him of his security, Daniel stays stuck in place, incapable of moving, the eyes of the young man watching straight in his own. Even from here, in the dark, he can discern the grey-blue of his iris, and it’s as if his heart stops beating, the world slows down until it becomes a blur around him. For a moment, all Daniel can see is those eyes looking at him, those lips twitching in a small smile, the sharp cheekbones… It is like something whispers in his head to go down again and go to that boy, talk to him, ask him if he is alright, anything. He needs to hear his voice.

The next second, the boy turns around and goes back on walking, hands in his pockets, and a tug on his arm wakes him from the trance he was drowning himself in.

“Are you okay?” Lewis asks him, and when Daniel turns his head to face him, his friend looks at him with a worried frown. All Dan can manage to say is a sequence of ‘ummm’ and ‘errrr’ that he himself can’t really explain.

They end up following the boy from the roofs, making sure he does not encounter anyone in his path, until he comes to a halt next to a fancy apartment complex. Their mission stops there now that he arrived home safely, but as he opens the large glass door, he turns his head back, moving his eyes by the top of the buildings until he spots them further away. Gaze locked on Daniel’s face as if trying to see through the mask, he waves at them and disappear in the dark corridor.

All that time, Daniel is still entranced, automatically raising his hand to wave back without tearing his eyes away from the door, and all he can think of is…

_Beautiful_

* * *

Thankfully enough, Lewis doesn’t ask about his weird demeanour that stuck with him the rest of the night, and they resume their patrol in peace.

But Daniel can’t tear his mind away from that stranger, thinking about him all night and all day for the remaining week, to the point that he gets distracted in his work, almost burns one of his regular clients’ hair, and definitely burns his dinner – he is not such a good cooker, but the carbonized smell that sticks on his walls for the next days painfully reminds him that he is not great either and he ends up buying a stock of sandwiches at Romain’s bakery the next day.

Every time he closes his eyes, the only thing he can think of are those soft grey eyes looking straight at him. He can’t really tell Lewis about it, his psychiatrist brain will only try to analyse him and Dan doesn’t want to go through this _again_ , he already has enough of it every two nights. Who decided to put him in the same team as Lewis again? Oh, yeah… He remembers Valtteri’s not so sorry smirk at the mention of Lewis replacing his former teammate… Daniel frowns, he doesn’t want to think about that right now. _Ever_.

Ah, but, he shouldn’t tell that kind of things about his friend, Lewis is great, really. Calm, patient, collected… The complete opposite of the chaos Daniel incarnates so well! They strangely fit together, balancing each other in missions, and Dan’s strength makes up for Lewis’ lack of fighting skills. He never needed them before joining the Honey Badger on patrols, more used to intervene after a particularly tough mission, medically helping either the victims or the vigilantes themselves. _Years of relationship with a certain Dr Rosberg surely helped._

So, of course, Lewis is a great and reliable friend, but… Those eyes, Daniel saw them once and he already loses his mind on it. He _knows_ what it means. No need for Lew’ to spend hours explaining that to him. However, Dan also knows he might need to take care of that little problem sooner than later, when Romain changes his usual order to a rose-flavoured ganache and – it’s good, as everything the baker can make, there is no doubt about it and Daniel almost eats it in one bite. But if Romain gave him the cake he made for Lewis and Nico’s third anniversary, it only means one thing: he knows. (And honestly, how that guy always knows what’s up in people’s head is to this day the biggest mystery Daniel has ever encounter, you meet him and, without even telling him anything, he chooses for you a cake, and by a miraculous wonder, it is your favourite cake in the whole world. How? _HOW?!_ )

And if Romain knows, Kevin knows. So really, he is not even that surprised when, at the following vigilante meeting, he hears the blond banter him with a “Our little badger is in love!”. Daniel simply flips him the bird, then buries his face in his hands with a hidden grin.

* * *

They spot him a couple other times a few hours before the sun rises, always walking alone toward his place, and always drawing those eyes to Daniel when the two vigilantes sit down on the edge of the roof when he arrives home.

If Lewis doesn’t say anything, Dan can still feel his eyes on him as he lets himself watch the younger man below, ignoring what he supposes to be a disapproving shake of the head of his teammate.

Every time, Daniel notices a little something new about that beautiful stranger: he never smiles when he sees them, always keeping a neutral face, contrary to the other potential night visitors of the area he doesn’t seem too fazed by the danger surrounding him, and he has a little orange animal attached to his keys.

Daniel would give everything to know his name.

* * *

He still hasn’t gotten over it when, a few weeks later, Lewis spots the boy at the end of their patrol.

“Hey, look, we know that guy!” Bear exclaims as he points below in the street where the lampposts barely light the surroundings. Daniel follows his eyes and, indeed, they know him. Dark blue zipped jacket, impeccable jeans and fancy shoes, the grey-eyed boy is standing in the middle of the road. Daniel leans himself front, intrigued, when he notices two other persons with him.

Or, more precisely, two other persons attacking him.

One of them throws a punch as the other launches himself at the boy, seemingly trying to get to his pockets, and before any of the two vigilantes can react, Valtteri’s voice resonates in their earbuds.

_“Three armed girls from the W gang spotted close to the Vipers’ territory, go check up on that.”_

Lewis quickly answers with a short _Copy_ when a faint cry erupts from below and Dan suddenly hesitates. Beautiful grey-eyed boy aside, they can’t leave someone in danger like that and-

“I’ll go first,” Lewis tells him as he pats his shoulder, “go save your pretty boy.”

The next second he is already jumping on the next roof and did Lewis just _wink_ at him?! He can’t tell because of the mask, but the way his face moved under the tissue is extremely distinctive.

“Thanks, mate!” Daniel shouts as he jumps from his spot, stopping his fall by quickly grabbing first the edge of the building, then the bars of the balconies and finally he lands gracefully on the sidewalk, immediately straightening up his back to face his opponents. But when his eyes meet the fighting scene, he is astonished to see the endangered boy calmly dusting off his hands, the two try-hard thieves laying unconscious on the ground.

Daniel stays silent, too in shock to move an inch, mouth agape, no coherent sound escaping his mouth (for once).

‘Pretty boy’ stretches his back and; in a swift motion, turns to face Dan. He glazes over the vigilante in a sort of indifference, but Daniel can see despite the darkness of the night the mischievous glint in his eyes as he irks an eyebrow.

“Well, thank you for your help…” The boy’s eyes move to Daniel’s chest, where the embroidered cartoon animal lays proudly. “Honey Badger.”

 _Oh God_ is all Daniel can think coherently for a second because _his voice_ … Strong and soft, lacing over his nickname in almost a whisper as if saying a secret name, and a warm chill runs through Dan’s spine before he collects himself enough to avoid blushing in front of this _stranger_.

“What can I say? It seems you never needed our protection, after all!” He grins, offering his cheekiest smile to the young man that smirks in return, as he walks closer to him.

“Oh I don’t need protection from anyone, I’m a big boy.” The grin grows a little.

“And what is a big boy like you doing here in the middle of the night?” The smirk doubles up.

“It’s a free country, no?”

Pretty and mysterious, uh? Daniel lets a small laugh out, closing his eyes for an instant. The boy is standing straight in front of him, toned arms crossed over his chest and head tilted on the side. Daniel pushes aside the weird feeling growing in his belly by placing his hands on his hips, rolling his shoulders.

“Well, if you can keep yourself safe, I might not need to stay around anymore.” He breathes out, still smiling, but the sudden change of expression on the boy’s face takes him by surprise. It doesn’t stay, though, and the frown is quickly replaced by a softer, smaller smile.

“Already off to another mission, I guess?”

“Yep! People to save, shops to protect, bad guys to arrest… Just the routine.” Dan shrugs. He doesn’t mean to brag, it truly became his routine those past years. Despite being used to it, when the boy’s smile spreads a little more on his face, making his pretty eyes squint, Daniel can’t stop the blush on his cheeks. So he does the only thing he masters to hide his feelings: joking around.

He bends exaggeratedly low, a hand on top of his heart and the other moving in circle on front of him as a goodbye salute, and starts walking away when he notices his heart beating faster than usual.

“Take care, don’t scare the bad guys too much, brush your teeth before going to bed!”

The boy chuckles, putting his hands in the pockets of his jacket as he steps away from the still unconscious thieves.

“Bye bye, Honey Badger.” He says in the same playful tone as the vigilante. Before he can stop himself, Dan retorts.

“Bye bye, mister…” _Oops_ …

“Max.”

Daniel stops suddenly, heart pounding hard in his ribcage. He turns his head behind to look one last time at the boy, at his dark blue jacket, at his sharp cheekbones, at his grey eyes, and completes his sentence in a calmer voice.

“Bye bye, Max.”

**Author's Note:**

> I love writing something as if I don't know where this is going when we ALL know where this is going  
> So, for the next part.... I have no idea when it will come out, because I have like that freaking huge oral exam next week and I'm a mess when it comes to oral exams so we'll see ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯  
> Please leave a kudo, a comment, a 'WTF' on my tumblr @suckmyballshoney, anything I would love it <3  
> Have a good day/night !


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